[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 6 (Tuesday, January 13, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S202-S203]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ISAKSON (for himself, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Alexander, Ms. 
        Ayotte, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. Crapo, Ms. Collins, Mr. Enzi, Mrs. 
        Fischer, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Kaine, Mr. King, Ms. 
        Klobuchar, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Manchin, Mr. McCain, Ms. 
        Murkowski, Mr. Perdue, Mr. Portman, Mr. Vitter, Mr. Warner, Mr. 
        Johnson, and Ms. Heitkamp):
  S. 150. A bill to provide for a biennial budget process and a 
biennial appropriations process and to enhance oversight and the 
performance of the Federal Government; to the Committee on the Budget.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I am very pleased to announce today that 
the biennial budget proposal introduced by Senators Isakson and Shaheen 
has been dropped. There are 21 cosponsors, 15 Republicans, 6 Democrats, 
and 1 Independent, and the number is growing as we speak.
  Senator Shaheen and I started this initiative 2 years ago and it 
received 68 votes and a test vote on the budget in 2013. We believe it 
will receive the necessary votes to become the law of the land in the 
United States of America.
  You might ask why a biennial budget or you might ask yourself why an 
$18 trillion debt and why hundreds of billions of dollars in deficit. 
We don't have the oversight necessary with the spending that we do now 
to keep us from wasting money. It is time we ran our country like we 
run our home. It is time we held our agencies accountable. It is time 
our appropriations weren't just idle promises but our oversight was the 
rule of law in the United States Senate.
  Twenty States out of fifty in the United States have biennial 
budgets. Countries around the world have biennial budgets. This 
Congress 3 years ago did a biennial budget for the Veterans' 
Administration just to ensure we wouldn't have a break in funding if 
the government shut down. Predictability of funding of government is 
critical, but the oversight of that funding is more critical.
  Picture this. You get elected in an even-numbered year, 2014. Your 
first order of business in 2015 is to pass a 2-year appropriations act 
and a 2-year budget. But then in the even-numbered year that comes up 
when you are running for reelection, your job is not spending, your job 
is oversight. Wouldn't it be nice, instead of going home and promising 
you are bringing home the bacon, instead you are bringing home the 
savings to see to it that taxpayers' money is better spent?
  The biennial budget is an idea whose time has come. It is the only 
way we are going to measurably and sustainably reduce the deficits and 
reduce the debt in the United States of America and hold our spending 
more accountable.
  Just last night on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, 
the Clay bill was passed on suicide prevention, a new program in the 
VA, and the funding mechanism was existing funds and fungibility. We 
already know there is existing money in the appropriations to our 
agencies to pay for new ideas if we charge them to go find them. Some 
of the measures we have been funding for 40 or 50 years probably don't 
need to be done anymore and some of the things we are not doing 
probably need to be done. But the way to do it is not to spend more 
money and throw more money at the problem, but the way to do it is to 
do it the way the American taxpayers do it back home--sit around the 
kitchen table, set their priorities, make their funding predictable, 
and from time to time go back and look at where they are spending money 
and see if they can't improve it. This is an idea that will make 
America great.
  Senator Shaheen is a former Governor of the State of New Hampshire. 
She had a biennial budget process in her State, and I wish to yield to 
her to describe her cosponsorship of this bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. I thank the Presiding Officer and I thank my colleague 
Senator Isakson, and I am pleased to join him on the floor today as we 
reintroduce this bipartisan legislation, the Biennial Budgeting and 
Appropriations Act. I want to start by recognizing the good work of 
Senator Isakson because he started working on this issue when he came 
to the Senate in 2005, and he has introduced this legislation in every 
Congress since then. I have been pleased to be able to join him in the 
last two Congresses.
  I think we have an opportunity in this Congress to pass this 
commonsense bipartisan reform. As Senator Isakson pointed out, there is 
no question that the budget process in Washington is broken. Since 1980 
there have been only two budgets that have been finished on time, 
according to the process. In that timeframe Congress has resorted to 
more than 150 short-term funding bills or continuing resolutions, and 
we all remember what it was like when the government shut down in 
October of 2013. It cost the economy $24 billion. It hurt small 
business. It hurt people across this country. That is no way to govern.
  While we have made significant progress to reduce deficits in recent 
years, we need a new way to do business in Washington. Biennial 
budgeting won't fix everything, but as Senator Isakson said, it is an 
important reform that will allow us to work across the aisle not only 
to make more sense of the budget process but to be better stewards of 
taxpayer dollars.
  We know that biennial budgeting works. I can attest to that 
personally, coming from the State of New Hampshire where we have a 
biennial budget. I served three terms as Governor. We were able in each 
of those bienniums to pass a budget that was balanced, that allowed us 
to get the budget done in the first year of the election cycle and in 
the second year to be able to have oversight. It works in New 
Hampshire, it works in 20 States around the country, and it can work in 
Washington.
  Biennial budgeting offers a better process that encourages us to work 
together to pass budgets on time and to use taxpayer dollars more 
efficiently. As Senator Isakson says, in the first year congressional 
agencies would put together a 2-year budget. In the second year 
Congress would have time to conduct oversight to give agencies the 
ability to focus on achieving their missions.
  As we all know, there are regular reports from the Government 
Accountability Office, GAO, that identify areas of waste, fraud, and 
duplicative programs within government.
  For example, they have identified ways to reform the farm programs, 
to cut down on inefficiencies in defense, to reduce fraud in health 
programs, but the current budget process doesn't provide an effective 
mechanism to regularly review GAO's recommendations.
  Under my annual budgeting, we would be able to take a close look at

[[Page S203]]

those recommendations to implement savings in the second year which 
will allow us to figure out how we can more effectively provide 
programs to the American people and eliminate those that don't work and 
support those that do.
  As we said, in 2013 we had a very strong vote with 68 Senators voting 
to endorse the concept of biannual budgeting. It was a very strong 
bipartisan vote. A similar biannual budget bill passed the House last 
year with a bipartisan bill vote. It is clear the momentum is growing 
for this concept because people understand we have to do something to 
reform our budget process.
  The bill we are introducing today has 22 bipartisan cosponsors. I 
know we are both working to get more bipartisan sponsors on the bill, 
and we think we have a great shot, with support from this body, to pass 
biannual budgeting. We think there is support in the House to do that, 
and I look forward to working with Senator Isakson and my colleagues in 
the Senate to get this done.
  Mr. ISAKSON. I thank the Senator for her support, and I urge the 
other Members of the Senate to join us in this reform effort for the 
spending of the taxpayer's dollars.
                                 ______